Homemade Peppermint Bark (Small Batch)

Peppermint bark is a satisfyingly simple holiday treat, with two gorgeous layers of dark and white chocolates and a flurry of candy cane pieces on top. Making your own from scratch is extra satisfying, with just a few ingredients and less than an hour of your time. This is a small batch recipe, requiring less […]
The post Homemade Peppermint Bark (Small Batch) first appeared on Love and Olive Oil.

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Homemade Peppermint Bark (Small Batch)

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** December 15, 2025
—
by Lindsay Landis

Peppermint bark is a satisfyingly simple holiday treat, with two gorgeous layers of dark and white chocolates and a flurry of candy cane pieces on top. Making your own from scratch is extra satisfying, with just a few ingredients and less than an hour of your time. This is a small batch recipe, requiring less than 12 ounces of chocolate in total to make an 8-inch square piece of bark, but it can easily be scaled up as needed.

There’s a reason peppermint bark is a holiday staple: it’s oh so festive, almost universally popular, and a perfect long-keeping treat for gifting or cookie exchanges (it totally counts as a cookie, in my opinion). Tied with festive twine and gorgeous gift tags (scroll to the bottom to download the free printable!) it makes an amazing gift for friends, teachers, and anyone who could use a little extra holiday sweetness.

[Overhead view of rough broken pieces of homemade peppermint bark scattered on a red background with bits of crushed candy canes scattered around.]

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I’ll admit, I didn’t set out to share a basic peppermint bark recipe (or as Taylor would say, a plain a$$ peppermint bark). There are easily a million and one recipes already out there on the Internet, does the world really need another one?

But as I was testing my Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookie recipe, I couldn’t find a store bought bark that wasn’t A: wildly expensive, or B: overly thick.

So I decided to make my own.

And since I was making my own peppermint bark from scratch anyway, I figured, why not kill two birds with one candy cane, and get a second post out of it? You could say it was peppermint to be! Granted, I didn’t plan on that second post turning into such a behemoth, a dissertation on peppermint bark if you will, but, alas, here we are.

(Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of this (admittedly very long) post to download the free printable gift tags!)

[Stack of rough broken pieces of peppermint bark on a red background with candy cane crumbs and a few mini candy canes scattered around.]

The good news is I’ve packed this post full of information. Like, seriously packed. You can easily scroll on by all these words if you want, but the detailed information in this post will help you succeed and make the best bark that’s ever been barked.

For intermediate bakers looking to up their holiday treat game, there’s information here on tempering chocolate, which is what gives your chocolate bark that snappy, shiny finish. Most home-bakers ignore this step completely (in fact most easy peppermint bark recipes out there don’t even mention it), but I know that you—a detail-oriented, ambitious baker, who some might call a perfectionist—are ready to take your chocolate bark to the next level. I know you can do it!

And even if you’re not a huge fan of peppermint, you can use this post as a foundation chocolate bark recipe and process, which you can then adapt any way you please, with whatever flavorings and toppings your chocolate-covered heart desires.

Looking for more bark-inspiration? Check out my matcha white chocolate crunch bark, chocolate chip cookie bark, and internet famous chocolate peanut butter bark.

[Clear treat bags filled with Homemade Peppermint Bark on a red background, tied with twine and printable gift tags.]

Psst! Scroll to the bottom of this post to download these darling printable gift tags!

Choosing your chocolate.

Peppermint bark is just chocolate, melted and reformed into a different shape. In the case of peppermint bark, with layers of dark chocolate and white chocolate with just a hint of peppermint flavor added. So obviously, the quality of the chocolate you use is important. In short, the better the chocolate, the better your bark will be.

Walk away from the baking aisle for this one, folks. Seriously. Instead, head a few aisles over and check out the chocolate bar selection, and choose your white and dark chocolates from there.

Why not baking chocolate? Baking chips are designed NOT to melt, made with additives and emulsifiers so they keep their shape when baked in cookies. Which makes sense when you think of a chocolate chip cookie, even hot out of the oven the chips keep their shape when baked.

But for this recipe, we want our melted chocolate smooth and fluid. And we also want chocolate that’s good enough to eat on its own. Which means getting eating chocolate, not baking chocolate. For the dark chocolate layer, look for a simple dark chocolate bar (no mix-ins) around 55-75% cacao. When it comes to white chocolate, look for cocoa butter as one of the first ingredients.

Or, if you have access to a pastry supply shop (locally or online), pastry chefs use what is called coverture chocolate for their chocolate creations. It is high quality, and formulated with high fluidity, which means it’s going to melt real nice (insert uncle Eddie gif here). It also typically comes in feves, disks, or callets, which negates the need to chop the chocolate before you start (there are few tasks I hate more than chopping chocolate). I used a mix of Callebaut, Valrhona, and Republica del Cacao chocolates here, all of which are great options.

If you insist on using a candy coating-like product (which does eliminate the need for tempering, I’ll give you that) something like Ghirardelli melting wafers are probably your best bet. Personally I’m not a fan of the fake, plasticky flavor these kinds of products often have.

Whatever you choose to use, just don’t mix chocolate types. For example, don’t use a high quality dark chocolate with a white candy coating, as your layers won’t meld together properly and will most definitely separate when you go to break it into pieces.

Control your temper.

Tempering is what gives chocolate that shiny, snappy finish—it’s essentially controlled crystallization. Untempered chocolate will be dull, bendy not snappy, and will very easily melt in your hands (so it needs to be refrigerated).

While your peppermint bark will taste just fine with untempered chocolate, proper tempering will take your homemade bark from ordinary to this-looks-professional territory. It is also stable at room temperature (so it’s great for gifting and shipping), and won’t melt all over your hands either.

That being said, I’m not a chocolate expert by any means. I sort of wing it much of the time using a rough seeding method that works for me maybe 60% of the time.

This year I made the effort to a be a bit more precise about it, using the same seeding method but paying attention to temperature a bit more closely. This chart here is a great reference if you’re wanting to temper chocolate yourself using the seed method.

[Breaking candy canes into small pieces using the dull backside of a knife.]

Break up candy canes by using the dull side of a knife to break into small pieces without pulverizing. Keep them in the wrappers for less mess!

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